We’re pleased to announce Gamestah’s production of Season 3 of the Blizzard ANZ Heroes of the Storm Season 3 Qualifiers! Once again we will be running a weekly series with two qualification spots for the Blizzard ANZ Finals and a shot at a share of $20,000, which will take place on 1 July 2017. Season 3 has some big changes, so check the details of how to qualify so that you don’t miss out!

Thursday nights will feature two rounds of Single Elimination, best-of-three (bo3) matches

There are rewards for all teams that participate in all four weeks of competition

Weekly Series: the Details

The best way to understand the weekly structure is to think of Tuesday nights as Division 2 matches, and Thursday nights as Division 1 matches. All teams start out in Division 2, and must qualify every week for the Division 1 play-off rounds.

There are two ways to qualify to play in the week’s Division 1 matches:

1. Top 4 from Swiss

In a given week, the top four teams from the Division 2 match night qualify for that week’s Playoffs. This means that at the start of each week, any team that plays on Tuesday could make it through to to the Thursday round – they just have to win enough matches to finish in the top four of that week.

2. Top 4 from (Previous Week’s) Playoffs

The other four teams in the playoffs qualify from the previous week’s playoff round. Playoffs feature eight teams in total, who play two bo3 matches in a single elimination bracket. After the 1st match, four teams are knocked out – these teams drop down into Division 2 and must play in the next week’s Swiss bracket. The other four teams proceed to the 2nd match of playoffs – and they also qualify for the next week’s playoffs. The four teams that stay in Division 1 from one week to the next may not play in the next week’s Swiss bracket!

For the first week of the competition, there are no Division 1 teams from the previous week (since there is no “previous week” yet), so instead eight teams will qualify from the Tuesday night Swiss bracket. Here’s an overview of each week:

Week 1

Division 2 Swiss

Date: Tuesday night, 30 May 2017

Swiss bracket, 4 matches, bo1

Open to all teams in ANZ

Top 8 teams qualify for Playoffs

Division 1 Playoff

Date: Thursday night, 1 June 2017

Single elimination bracket, 2 matches, bo3

Open to only Top 8 teams from Swiss

Top 4 teams proceed to Week 2 Playoffs (i.e. Division 1)

Bottom 4 teams return to Week 2 Swiss (i.e. Division 2)

Week 2

Division 2 Swiss

Date: Tuesday night, 6 June 2017

Swiss bracket, 4 matches, bo1

Open to all teams in ANZ

Top 4 teams qualify for Playoffs

Division 1 Playoff

Date: Thursday night, 8 June 2017

Single elimination bracket, 2 matches, bo3

Top 4 teams from Swiss + Top 4 teams from Week 1 Playoffs

Top 4 teams proceed to Week 3Playoffs (i.e. Division 1)

Bottom 4 teams return to Week 3 Swiss (i.e. Division 2)

Week 3 & Week 4

Weeks 3 and 4 repeat the process from Week 2.

Qualification for Blizzard ANZ Finals

The top 2 teams from the entire series will qualify to play in the Blizzard ANZ Finals on 1 July. To identify the top 2, a Leaderboard will be maintained. Teams earn points on the leaderboard by winning matches in both the Swiss and Playoff rounds each week:

Standard Points

1 point for winning a Swiss bracket (Division 2) match

Max 4 points per week

1 point for winning a Playoff bracket (Division 1) match

Max 2 points per week

Bonus Points

1 bonus point for finishing in the top 4 of the week’s Swiss bracket

Note: this point is only awarded if the team actually plays in the Playoff round

5 bonus points for finishing in the top 4 of the week’s Playoff bracket (only awarded in Week 1, 2 and 3).

Understanding the Points System

Teams should be rewarded for their success from one week to the next. The first rewards, Standard Points, come from winning matches. This means that a team that wins all four of their matches on Swiss night will get four points towards their Qualification campaign. Finishing in the Swiss Top 4 earns a place in the Playoff Round for that week, and that earns a Bonus Point. Note that if a team only wins three matches on Swiss night, but still make the top 4, they still get the Bonus Point for making it through to the Playoff round!

The 2nd set of Bonus Points compensates those teams that “miss out” on the Swiss bracket points. Because they have qualified for the next week’s Playoffs, they are not permitted to play in the Swiss bracket. To ensure they do not get penalized for missing those four matches (and thus losing the 4 points available), they are awarded 5 bonus points – as if they have won all four of their Swiss matches and earned the bonus point for finishing in the top 4. Note that since there is no Week 5, no additional bonus points are awarded for finishing in the Top 4 of Week 4 Playoffs.

The points system means that teams who maintain their position in Division 1 (by qualifying from one week to the next through the Playoff rounds) are rewarded for doing so, while still giving all other teams the opportunity to earn maximum points even if they have to fight their way through Swiss bracket again!

Participation Rewards

Blizzard ANZ will once again be rewarding teams that participate in all four weeks of the qualification series. There will be additional rewards for all teams that have participated in the Playoff rounds of three or more weeks. Watch out for a further announcement that will provide details of the rewards to come!

Tiebreakers

There is a possibility that teams will be tied for match wins after four rounds of Swiss on Tuesday nights. If this results in more than 4 teams being in the “top 4” we will use Challonge’s standard tiebreaker algorithms to break ties. In other words, if two teams are ranked 4th and 5th but have identical match wins, Challonge will order them based on tiebreaker algorithms (TB, Bucholz and Points Difference). In the rare case that two teams are in this situation and have identical records for all three tiebreakers, they will be required to play in a head-to-head match immediately after the completion of the 4 round of Swiss. The head-to-head tiebreaker match will be bo1 and the winner will proceed to Playoffs.